Abstract
The ‘naked ape’1 emerged from the jungle about 2 million years ago. Those of our ancestors who survived this move were the ones who learned to use their superior brains not only to combine with each other in hunting groups, which wolves and many other animals did, but also to throw missiles, which very few other species do. They later learned to fashion weapons to compete with the animals who ranged over the open plains, fleeter of foot and more powerful in tooth and claw. Humans who failed to master these cerebral arts either died of starvation or were caught and eaten by other carnivorous animals.
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Notes and References
Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape, London, Jonathan Cape, 1967.
See also MacFarlane Burnet, Dominant Mammal, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971. Morris traces man’s behaviour from his animal roots, Burnet through biology and demography. Both throw a great deal of light on man’s tendency, rare in the animal world, to slaughter large numbers of his own species.
For an excellent analysis of European power at its peak, see John Terraine, The Mighty Continent, London, BBC, 1974
Michael Shanks, What’s Wrong with the Modern World, London, The Bodley Head, 1978, gives a fuller explanation of this 50-year cycle.
See also Richard Clutterbuck, Industrial Conflict and Democracy, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp. 8–10
Alexis de Tocqueville, The Ancien Régime and the French Revolution (Paris 1852), London, Fontana, 1971
Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution, New York, Vintage, 1957
John Terraine, The Mighty Continent, London, BBC, 1974
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© 1993 Richard Clutterbuck
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Clutterbuck, R. (1993). Historical Roots of International Conflict. In: International Crisis and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379015_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230379015_2
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